The present invention relates to a sink or gas permeable member made of fireproof or refractory ceramic material having extending therethrough channels for the passage therethrough of a gas. Such sinks are conventional in many technologies, for example for use in supplying a gas into molten metal within a metallurgical vessel. The present invention also relates to a process for the production of the novel sink of the present invention.
A refractory ceramic sink of this general type is described in DE-OS 32 46 937. In this known arrangement, channels are created by burning out a network of synthetic material embedded in a previously formed ceramic element. This arrangement is not entirely satisfactory, since the burning away operation is undesirable.